Final Fantasy 2 Helpguidever12

8/3/2019 Final Fantasy 2 Helpguidever12

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Final Fantasy 2 manual-type thingy 11/1/1999. Ver. 1.2(This is not a help guide for Final Fantasy 4 for Snes that wasreleased in America as Final Fantasy 2. This is for Final Fantasy 2for the Nes.)

Written by El Nino ([email protected])

Version History

Ver 1.2 (11/1/99) Another update was required thanks to my stupidity.Diagram of the "row" system didn't make sense when converted from.doc to .txt. So that's fixed now. Also put the wrong date on Ver 1.1release, fixed that too.

Ver 1.1 (10/30/99) Almost immediately after submitting Ver 1.0 to thenet I learned something new that made me feel so dense I'm surprised Idon't have my own gravity. Changes made to Attributes Section andalmost completely redone Adjusted Stats Section.

Ver 1.0 (10/29/99) Initial release. Yay

What this is: This is a guide designed to explain the basic mechanicsof Final Fantasy 2.

What this isn't: A walkthrough that will tell you what to do every stepof the way (if people beg enough, I'll write one of those too)

NOTE: This is an explanation of how I think Final Fantasy 2 works. Ihave played and beaten the game and so even if my observations are not100% accurate, you will still be able to get through the game by

following them. If you do find out something I missed or flat-out liedabout, feel free to email me at [email protected]. Put "Final Fantasy2" as the subject or I will assume the letter to be spam and delete it.

If you have never played through a single Final Fantasy game, or anyrole-playing game for that matter, don't start with this one. This isone of the more difficult console RPGs I've played. If the only reasonyou play RPGs is for story you might wanna skip this one, the story iscrap. This is an RPG for people who play video games for gameplay(what a concept). Expect to spend about 50% as much time wonderingaround getting levels up as you do following the story.

There are three sections to this manual-type thingy: AdvancementSystem, Stuff That Ain't the Advancement System, Tips and such.

ADVANCEMENT SYSTEM

Ok, This is pretty much the reason I wrote this manual-type thingy.The Advancement System in FF2 is Square's attempt at a more realisticAdvancement System. The unrealistic aspect of most RPGs is it isillogical for, say, a White Mage to cast spells better because he stoodthere and watched the fighter kill someone. Or the White Mage coulduse his Hammer of Wussiness to pound a goblin's head in and that makeshim better able to heal somehow. Basically, the experience that goes

into a level up does not fit the abilities received upon level up.

Square's solution, do away with grand overall experience and make each


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skill and attribute build up separately. For example: if you fight alot, your ability to fight increases. If you use magic, your abilityto cast spells increases. There are four areas of advancement:Attributes, Weapon Skills, Magic Skills, and Adjusted Stats. If you getconfused, don't worry. Between reading this and playing the game,you'll learn the system in about 10 minutes.

Rule Number 1: If you are getting stats up, don't try to run fromcombat. If you flee, you will lose anything that may have gone up.You will also lose all your hard work if you leave combat with a statusailment that doesn't go away at the end of combat (dark, poison, etc.)

A * next to a stat means that I think what I have is correct, but don'tbe surprised if its not

Attributes

Attributes generally refer to the player's raw, unfocused energy.

There are five of them.

Power- Pwr. - Power is your raw strength. Building it will increasethe damage done by your attacks. There are two ways to build it.1)FIGHT!!!! Beating people up makes are stronger. 2)Equip powerfulArmor. Carrying around all that metal has a tendency of making youbigger, go fig.

*Agility- Agl. - Agility is how quick you are. It affects who goeswhen in combat and how successful you are at running. To build it upyou have to try to run and fail. Then complete the fight.

Vitality- Vit. - Vitality is how well your body gets hurt. When you

get more HP (see HP below) you will receive X more total HP. X =Characters vitality. To build, lose HP in combat.

Intelligence- Int. - Intelligence is how well you can cast Black Magic.Affects how many MP gained on MP up (works with Soul). Build bycasting Black Magic

Soul- How well you cast White Magic. Affects how many MP gained on MPup (works with Int.) Build by casting White Magic.

HP- Hit Points- how much pain a character can take before dying. Tobuild, get beat up and lose half (give or take) of your total HP. Thismust be done in a single combat. The game compares your HP at the endof the combat to your HP at the beginning of the combat. So if you gethurt, don't heal yourself or you won't get more HP

MP- Magic Points- how many spells you can cast. Building this is justlike building HP.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Pwr and Vit conflict with Int. When Pwr. or Vit. go upInt. goes down, and Vice Versa. This is done to prevent Ultra-powerfulFighter/Black Wizards. This also means that your magic users will haveto have crappy armor to prevent Pwr increases.

Adjusted Stats

These are the stats that are not built by your actions. They go up


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when the stat that affects them goes up. These are likeinterpretations for your skills, it tells you what having a skill updoes to your performance in the game.

Defense- Def. - How well you can absorb damage. Obviously, this isadjusted by the Armor you are wearing.

Attack- How much damage you do. Affected by Pwr. and the weapon youhave equipped

Hit %- How many times you can hit and your chances of hitting. Thereare two numbers listed next to this stat. The first is how many hitsyou can do. The second is your chances of hitting. This stat isaffected by the character's skill in the weapon they are using. (SeeWeapon Skills)

*Evade -Evad -How well you can use a shield to deflect attacks. Twolisted numbers, first is how many attacks you can evade. The second isyour chances of successfully evading them. Affected by Shield Skill

(also in weapon skills) and type of shield equipped.

Magic Power- M. Pwr.- How potent the spells you cast are. Your Int.and Soul affect this stat

***Magic Defense - Mdef- How well you can resist Black Magic. Thereare two numbers listed, like with evade and hit%, but I have no ideawhat the two numbers mean. Not sure what affects it.

Weapon Skills

Since all of the Weapon Skills are similar, I'll explain them all at

once. There are many different types of weapons (swords, axes, lances,etc.). Your characters will become more skilled with the weapons asthey use them. Increasing the level of skill with a weapon willincrease the number of hits you can do. This is handy because a weaponthat does 60 points of damage could do 3 hits and do 180 points ofdamage. There are two numbers listed. The first the skill level ofthe weapon. The second is the amount of experience you have built.100 points of experience gets a level up. Shield is also in with thisbunch. It advances the same way, but instead of number of times ithits, it has the number of hits it can deflect. Build the skills up byattacking with that type of weapon. Build your shield stat by having ashield equipped while attacking.

Magic Skills

Like with weapons, Magic Skills have two numbers. The first is thelevel of that spell. The second is the experience of that spell. Tobuild up the level of the spell, cast it. When a spell goes up alevel, it will improve its effects in one of two ways. If the spell isa HP or MP altering spell, the spell will affect the HP or MP more(we've all played some FF game before, get BOLT a level up to becomeBOLT2. Get CURE a level up to get CURE2). If it is a spell intendedto fix a status ailment (Poison, stone, dead, etc.) The spell will havea better chance of being successful. When you get Heal and Life, they

will rarely work in combat and require some levels up to become useful.

STUFF THAT AIN'T THE ADVANCEMENT


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SYSTEM

Thank god we are past that section. Man, I had no idea writing thiswas going to be so annoying. Thanks to everyone who has ever written aWalkthrough/FAQ/Manual-Type Thingy. Back to FF2.

Ok, you have the biggest thing that separates this from other RPGs, now

on to little stuff. These are the smallest tidbits from the game thatI can remember off the top of my head that are either unique to thisgame or are just rarely used. First is the conversation helper"learn". When someone talks to you they will sometimes have a word inparenthesis. This is a word that can be learned. Move the pointer tolearn and select the word. Now you can a new word that you can say tocertain people. So when you are looking for Cid to ask him aboutAirships, you have to talk to him, select the "say" option, and thenselect the word you want to talk to him about. This is done to givethe player the illusion that they have some degree of control in socialactions. It's kind of cheesy the way it's implemented, but the idea isgood.

Like most FF games, This game has the "row" system. You can put weakercharacters in the back to protect them from damage. If a character isin the back row, they can only be attacked by bow weapons and magic.Any character in the back row can only attack and hit with a bow weaponso it's not all fine and dandy. The monsters have a row system oftheir own. Look at the following pattern, X's are monsters and O's arecharacters:

OX X X X OX X X X O

O

The monsters on the two rows closest to the characters are the onlyones who can be attacked. Even Bows can't attack the ones in the back.Magic can be cast on any monster though.

Like In FF1, you characters will swing at enemies even when the targetis dead. If you attack and the message says ineffective, you know why

TIPS AND SUCH

To get the most out of your team, as early as possible put each of theminto one of two categories: Fighter or Black Mage. There are nocharacter classes defined by the game, but I'm sure you know what Imean. All characters should know and be skilled with the followingspells: CURE, LIFE, HEAL.

The player has the option of equipping two weapons at once. Althoughyou only do the damage of the more powerful of the two, you will getlevels up with both weapons. This is a good way to learn a new weaponwhile still doing damage with your preferred weapon. Your defense will

suffer without a shield though.

I strongly recommend you take one character at the start of the game,


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give him a sword, and never give him any other weapon besides a sword.Whatever sword you have at a given time is usually better than anyother weapon available.

Don't have all your fighters as swordsmen. There are many other fineweapons and there is the possibility you won't explore enough to find akick booty sword and you will need to rely on someone else's skills

with the other weapons until you retrace your steps or finally find thenext great blade.

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